1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus for performing recording by ejecting ink and to the way of display of the state of use of an ink cartridge in an ink jet recording apparatus. Particularly, the present invention relates to display or indication of the state of use or the time for replacement of a replaceable cartridge in connection with a replaceable ink cartridge having a structure in which ink to be used for recording and waste ink discharged while the cartridge is used in an ink jet recording apparatus can be accommodated.
2. Related Background Art
In the field of ink jet recording in which recording is performed by ink ejected from ink ejection ports provided on a recording head, a serial type ink jet recording apparatus that performs recording while moving the recording head relative to a recording medium in a scanning manner has been conventionally known. In connection with this serial type ink jet apparatus, an arrangement in which ink is supplied to the recording head from an ink tank disposed on the apparatus has been known as a method of supplying ink to the recording head. Furthermore, in order to avoid ink ejection errors in the recording head, it has been known to provide recovery means so as to cause ink to be ejected or sucked from ejection ports of an ink ejection part so that the ejected or sucked ink is stored as waste ink in a waste ink tank. That recovery means is means adapted to cause the ink to be ejected for the purpose other than recording, and it includes not only ejecting operation by suction but also a preliminary ejection process for causing ink to be ejected during a period other than recording. Still further, an ink cartridge in which the aforementioned ink tank for supplying ink and waste ink tank are combined has also been known. Especially, an ink cartridge in which the aforementioned ink tank for supplying ink and waste ink tank are combined is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,281,911. The ink cartridge disclosed in this document is provided with a member for storing ink and a member for storing waste ink and adapted in such a way that waste ink discharged by a recovery operation of a printer is returned to the ink cartridge so as to be stored in the member for storing waste ink.
In the structure in which the ink discharged by a recovery process is returned to an ink cartridge so that the ink is stored in a dedicated storing member as described above, waste ink discharged at the time of starting of the recording operation or during the recording operation is accumulatively stored in the storing member as ink is consumed by the recording operation. Generally, the storing member for storing waste ink has a certain capacity for storing waste ink. If the storing member is caused to store waste ink beyond its capacity, the waste ink will overflow, and eventually the interior of the apparatus or the circumference of the ink cartridge will be contaminated. In connection with this, arrangements adapted to regulate discharged waste ink amount and when the waste ink amount exceeds a predetermined amount or when the remaining capacity for waste ink becomes smaller than a predetermined amount, to inhibit recording after that or give warning concerning waste ink, has been conventionally known.
From the viewpoint of ink cartridge design, it is preferable that the capacity of the member for storing waste ink be made so large that the waste ink mount does not exceed its full capacity before the ink in the ink cartridge is fully consumed. For that purpose, it is necessary to determine the capacity of the storing member taking into consideration the maximum amount of waste ink discharged by suction discharge and preliminary ejection, etc. However, it is important for the ink cartridge to be kept compact in order to attain downsizing of the apparatus. Therefore, a design intended to provide a waste ink storing member having a sufficient capacity in an ink cartridge can be a limiting factor for downsizing of the apparatus.
Both of the member for storing ink and the member for storing waste ink can be made as storing members in the form of bags. In that case, since the volume of those members varies, even when the volume of the member for storing waste ink increases with recovery operations, the volume of the member for storing ink decreases with ink consumption by. recording operations or recovery operations. Therefore, in the arrangement in which ink and waste ink are stored in respective storing members in the form of bags provided in one cartridge, the member for storing waste ink will not become a fully filled state before ink is consumed even if recovery operations are frequently performed. In other words, in the case that an ink supplying bag that stores ink to be used for recording and a waste ink storing bag are accommodated in one ink cartridge, even if ink to be supplied is fully discharged by recovery operations and stored as waste ink, the volume of the waste ink combined ink cartridge may be made as small as the volume in which an ink supplying bag filled with ink and an empty waste ink storing bag can be accommodated, since the ink supplying bag is evacuated by the same volume as the waste ink storing bag is filled.
However, in the case of a color ink jet recording apparatus in which multiple inks of different colors are used, multiple types of inks are discharged by the recovery process. Therefore, a problem can arise even when an ink cartridge having the above-described structure is used.
In the color ink jet recording apparatus capable of recording color images by ejecting multiple inks of different colors, there is adopted a structure in which multiple ink cartridges corresponding to different colors are attachable or a structure in which an ink cartridge that can integrally accommodate multiple inks of different colors is used. In the former structure, it is not necessary to provide a member for storing waste ink in each of the ink cartridges for different colors. That is because waste ink generated by the recovery means is discharge from ejection ports of the recording head, and therefore the flow path of the waste ink is only one. For that reason, it is sufficient to provide at least one cartridge for storing waste ink. In the latter structure in which inks of multiple colors are integrally accommodated, it is general practice that one waste ink storing member is provided in the ink cartridge.
FIG. 4 shows a structure in which multiple ink cartridges for different colors can be attached. In this structure, each of the color inks are stored in individual ink cartridges 2, 3, 4 and 5 and waste ink is to be stored in the cartridge 2 for black ink. In this case, since not only waste ink of black but also waste inks of the other colors such as Y, M or C are stored in the waste ink storing member 6, the volume of the waste ink storing member 6 is required to be made large. In the structure shown in FIG. 4, even in the case that the waste ink storing member 6 in the form of a bag is used, it is necessary to make the capacity thereof large, since waste inks of the other colors are also to be stored.
Similarly, in the structure that uses an ink cartridge in which multiple inks of different colors are integrally accommodated, it is necessary to make the volume of a waste ink storing member large, since waste inks of all of the colors are stored in the waste ink storing member.
As per the above, in the ink cartridge system like the structure shown in FIG. 4 in which only one ink cartridge among a plurality of ink cartridges is provided with a waste ink storing member, it is not necessary to combine waste ink storing members to all of the ink cartridges. On the other hand, in the structure in which inks of all of the colors are integrally accommodated, it is sufficient to provide only one waste ink storing member in the ink cartridge. However, since waste inks discharged from all of the ink cartridges flow into the waste ink storing member in a mixed manner, it is necessary upon designing the volume of the waste ink storing member to consider the overall balance. If a waste ink storing bag is designed to have a volume that can store the volume of the inks to be supplied in all of the ink cartridges, overflow of the waste ink storing bag will not occur. In that case, however, the size of the ink cartridge is increased, so that there arise problems of size and cost of the apparatus.
In practice, inks to be supplied are ejected onto recording sheets for the most part, and therefore the waste ink storing bag need not store the volume of the inks to be supplied in all of the ink cartridges. However, depending on the state of use by users, recovery operations can be frequently performed. Therefore, there still remains the problem that waste ink overflows from a waste ink storing member or the problem that the operation of an apparatus is compelled to be stopped due to incapability of storing waste ink.